The Psychology of Colour and Design in Branding

Colour and design are two of the most popular yet underutilized tools by marketers today. One of the most intriguing aspects of brand marketing; both colour and design significantly define how audiences perceive a brand.

So whether you are a millennial appealing fashion brand or a pharmaceutical company looking to boost trust amongst your audiences, colour and design are powerful mediums to build a strong brand.

What is Colour Psychology and Why is it Important?

Colours have the power to evoke emotions. They affect our sight in every interaction we make in our waking state. So how can it not be an influential factor for a business? Opt for colours that strategically make your brand stand out and enhance the attention span of potential leads while representing positivity to existing consumers.

It all starts from the bottom of the funnel, a brand logo. And slowly commands its way to a brand's website, its products & even any promotional merchandise associated with the name. The colour ‘Red’ instantly evokes the strongest emotions of excitement, passion, and action. So it is best to use it sparingly on your website for SALE icons or Click Bait pages. On the other hand, it works brilliantly for gift packaging. An intense colour, corporate gifts packed in luscious red stand out by creating an appetite of excitement.

How you choose your colours and apply them to your business ultimately represents what you want your brand to be about.

The Principal Applications of Design for Brand Visibility

Design is all that meets the eye and more. With an estimated consumer market of 400 million, brands are trying to tap across industries for a global appeal. So if you don’t stand at the forefront, your brand loses the opportunity to be instantly recognized.

Having a timeless, confident and easily recognizable design is a shortcut route into the limited attention spans of consumers today. The psychology behind using exquisite designs that represents your brand is- to create an appealing visual pattern that resonates with your audiences.

A good corporate gift with a striking brand logo and colourful packaging ultimately comes down to the design of the product. It reduces the mental effort a receiver makes to take the desired action of liking the product and the brand instantaneously.

Two Systems can be applied when using design to leverage brand visibility on a global level:

System 1- Instinctive Thinking

This system involves curating a non-conscious instinctive cognitive behaviour by allowing consumers to quickly identify the brand through a unified design. Like Coca-Cola’s distinctive red circle logo is a trigger for consumers to identify the brand.

System 2- Design Strategy

A long-term process, system 2 plays around the nuances that drive consumers to the brand by listing relevant reasons for them. This strategy includes a play of strong colours, bold fonts, simple designs and a touch of personalization.

Key Takeaway

In a bid to stand out, today marketers would love an MRI of their consumer’s brains. But till that dream of theirs becomes a reality, we at 5By7 are curating, creating and designing distinctive corporate gifts with evocative packaging to help brands be more desirable to their audiences.